| Summary: | Background
Despite progress in understanding mothers' (re)appearances within family justice, fathers have not yet received due attention in research on recurrent care proceedings.
Aims
• Compare parents' gendered risks of entering subsequent care proceedings;
• Map family relations underpinning recurrent care proceedings;
• Investigate the role of family members' life course characteristics (e.g. age, number of children) in shaping the risk of returning to court.
Methods
Analysis drew on 2007/08-2017/18 administrative records from the Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Services (Cafcass) in England. From a sample of recurrent parents (N = 24,460), a latent class analysis established profiles of who they returned with. A competing risks analysis of all parents (N = 165,550) modelled the risk of returning into each profile given index characteristics.
Results
Overall rate of return for mothers was 1.7 times that of fathers: 22% after 5 years, compared to 13% for fathers, and 29% and 17% after 10 years, respectively.
Five distinct profiles of recurrent parents were established: 'recurrent family', 'recurrent couple', 're-partnered couple', 'complex recurrence', and 'lone parent'. The vast majority of fathers who entered subsequent proceedings did so as either a part of a recurrent family (41%) or recurrent couple (36%). However, these two profiles represented a much smaller proportion (25% and 19%, respectively) of all recurrent mothers, while the remainder returned with either a new partner or as a lone parent (49%), both with a new child. Complex recurrence represented a small proportion for both mothers and fathers (7% and 11%, respectively). The risk of each of these profiles is characterised by the distinct life course positions of the parent.
Conclusion
The results underscore the value of a relational approach and understanding a parent's position within the life course in social work research towards building a fuller picture of recurrence.
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